Festive Homemade Foaming Hand Soap

Do you want to add a little holiday cheer to some unexpected areas of your home? Do you need a last-minute gift idea? This festive, all-natural, homemade foaming hand soap is just the thing! Made with simple and non-toxic ingredients, this will leave you fa-la-la-ing while you wash your hands!

It’s Thanksgiving week! Christmas is just around the corner now! Our homes are full of the wonderful scents of cooking and baking, and soon the smell of fresh cut fir trees will fill the air as well.

This is also the season when Mrs. Meyers Clean Day comes out with their holiday-scented soaps and cleaners. For the past five years I’ve bought the Orange Clove scented hand soap because I can not get enough of that Christmasy scent! But as you know, I make my own cleaners, and I’ve decided that it’s high time that hand soaps are on that list.

While Mrs. Meyers hand soaps are better than a lot of other products on the market, they’re still not completely natural. They list undisclosed “fragrance” as an ingredient, and we all know that can mean pretty much anything! My oldest daughter and I both suffer pretty badly from eczema in the winter, so we’re now trying to steer clear of anything that could give us a flare. My biggest deciding factor for making my own, however, is cost. Using my big bottle of castile soap, I can make a custom-scented bottle of foaming hand soap for a fraction of the price!

So, without further ado, here’s my take on a festive, holiday-scented homemade foaming hand soap using all-natural and non-toxic ingredients:

Why Use Castile Soap

You might remember from my post on all-natural granite cleaner that it wasn’t so very long ago that I thought castile soap was just for hippies. That watery stuff couldn’t possibly get anything clean! However, you also know that in the last few years I have become a staunch convert to the castile, mostly because there is no disputing that it is a good, concentrated, completely biodegradable and effective soap!

Castile soap is made from vegetable oils (like coconut, olive, hemp and jojoba oils) instead of animal fat or synthetic detergents. In Dr. Bronner’s brand specifically, the ingredients are simple, organically sourced and certified fair trade. The soap will break down in nature more quickly and easily than other soaps, and is safe for septic systems and the environment.

What does the vitamin E do?

I included the vitamin E oil as a moisturizing agent, because castile soap (and winter) can sometimes dry out my skin. You could also add almond oil or fractionated coconut oil.

Other Essential Oil Blends

I was trying to recreate that subtle and spicy orange scent of Mrs. Meyers Clean Day Orange Clove soap, but the aroma combinations of essential oils are almost endless! You can basically make any scent you want. My other favorite holiday hand soap scents are:

Sugar Pine

10 drops peppermint essential oil

10 drops cedarwood essential oil

5 drops spearmint essential oil

5 drops fir needle essential oil

Holiday Eggnog

15 drops nutmeg

10 drops vanilla

5 drop cinnamon

There are also plenty of pre-mixed options on the market. Young Living and doTerra have their own, but if you don’t want to pay an arm and a leg, you can try Plant Therapy’s holiday scents.

Like I said before, I’m still not convinced essential oils are the amazing powerhouse of health that some claim they are, but they are 100% better for us than those undisclosed and synthetic “fragrances” so many commercial companies use. Plus, they smell amazing!

Related

Disclaimer: This post may include affiliate links, and I will earn a commission if you purchase through these links. Please note that I’ve linked to these products purely because I recommend them and they are from companies I trust. There is no additional cost to you and won’t affect you in any way (other than earning you my eternal gratitude!)

Will be trying this. Living in France with access to soap made in Marseilles, I am hoping to make soap bars next year. I also suffer from sensitive skin and the chemical soaps with all those additive perfumes etc just make my hands itchy and red. At the moment I use an olive oil soap – kind to hands and a lovely smell too.